Tag Archives: Animoog

These Animoog news cover versions 2.2.6 and 2.2.8 and Animoog for iPhone 1.1.10, both supporting the new Audiobus Remote app.

Animoog version 2.2.8 has been released yesterday and here’s the official release notes:

Added support for AudioBus Remote with triggers for Recorder, Preset Navigation, Scale Lock, Hold and Orbit Time Change

Added support for mixing down to AudioCopy and AudioShare in the 4-track recorder

Stability improvements

As an happy Animoog beta tester, I can confirm there’s useful fixes in the ‘stability improvements’ category. The big addition here is Audiobus Remote support. Audiobus itself is a popular app to route audio from one app to other apps, making it easy to add filters and effects, adding tracks from other apps, and more, all this in real-time. As an example, you can run drums from the Sector app and play Animoog live while recording both in a third app. With version 2.2.8 released yesterday, Animoog can now be controlled on another iOS device with Audiobus Remote. Moog developer Geert Bevin shared the following screenshot of Animoog and Filtatron in Audiobus Remote.

Animoog version 2.2.6 was released on June 29th, 2015, while I was on holidays and away from computers (but with my dear Animoog alongside), and its official release notes are:

Stability improvements for a very rare crash at launch

Stability improvements in situations where the audio engine is reset by iOS itself

Improvements to restore purchase functionality

That’s correct, Animoog version 2.2.7 never made it to the public.

Updates to Animoog for iPhone were also released, with version 1.1.7 released on June 15, then v1.1.8 on June 17, followed by v1.1.9 on June 27. And now, lucky us, we’re at version 1.1.10 released on July 30.

Moog developers taking care of Animoog since last Spring continue to be closer than ever to its users and the iOS musicians community, and that’s great news for the future of Animoog!

We told you it was coming and now the wait is over! And don’t let you mislead by the it’s name, version 2.2.4 is a major Animoog update considering it brings lots of significant fixes, including stable support for iOS 8. Version 2.2.3 came out in October 2014, over 6 months ago. And now that Moog is putting more love to Animoog development, I expect we’ll have good news from Moog more frequently.

In a world where there’s hundreds of excellent albums being made available daily, what excites me about what I propose with this album is you don’t need anything special other than the Animoog app to reproduce or play similar tracks. They’re single-track improvisations with no loops, no sequencer, no external effects, no complex or expensive music gear, everything is played live leveraging a single Animoog preset. It’s music you can listen to and music you can play in the comfort of your home or anywhere you’d like. The app is played and enjoyed just like any other musical instrument would be. I hope it inspires you to create your own tracks and discover that nowadays, we can have deep fun creating live music with accessible instruments and some practice.

[…] single-track improvisations with no loops, no sequencer, no external effects, no complex or expensive music gear, everything is played live leveraging a single Animoog preset

It’s only recently that I discovered the richness of sophisticated electronic sounds. This new chapter really begun with the advent of Moog Music’s award-winning Animoog music instrument. After I came to know Animoog through unexpected lucky events, I became enamored with its expressive capabilities. It became a hobby to explore Animoog sounds on quiet Friday nights. Wanting to share my enthusiasm and contribute to a same-minded community, I launched Animoog.org in March 2014 to discuss and document everything revolving around the app. While lots of the work remain to be done, the website does offer value and is the only place where you’ll find a list of third-party Animoog expansion packs. My early 2013 Animoog improvisations sounded good enough to me that I decided to make a collection. While my playing improved, I started a second collection in January 2014 with the intention of making an album out of it. In August of the year I had enough material to prepare the release of most of those tracks on what became the ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music’ album.

Similarly to my ‘Beau temps’ music album, released in 2002 under the royalty-free ‘open audio’ license – before Creative Commons licenses existed and at a time when it was unusual to provide albums for free on the Internet, this new album is available under the CC-BY Creative Commons license and consequently, free to anyone to copy, remix and transform. Each track has its cover art made with the amazing Uzu app.

Ironically after recording the last track, I learned about and watched ‘PressPausePlay’, an insightful documentary on the democratization of culture production in the digital era. I’m a child of PressPausePlay in the sense that I’m one of the many scouts of the new generation of musicians having fun and exploring the newly accessible ways of making music through the exposure and use of modern software-based music tools. Music has accompanied humanity for thousands of years and it’s reassuring that the means of expressing emotions through music are still evolving. While music production is getting democratized, just like a traditional instrument, it requires practice, experimentation and time to begin to master the most complex tablet-based music creation apps.

[…] I’m one of the many scouts of the new generation of musicians having fun and exploring the newly accessible ways of making music […]

This album is ‘unmastered’, it’s the raw tracks for which sound levels have not been corrected and no adjustments were done to convey an enhanced listening experience. I resorted to a diversity of Animoog presets to create the 47 tracks of the album. Those presets were created by several sound designers and I have to thank them for making it possible for us to play with their soundscapes. Preset ambiances range from soft and harmonious sounds, with ping pong stereo delay or not, to rhythmic and more brutal sounds. Credit is given to the tracks’ presets and thus anyone can launch Animoog and replay a track they liked and make it much better, just like when someone sits in front of a piano to jam on an existing song.

I invite you to listen to the tracks which are available for free. These types of sounds and performances are best enjoyed by listening with quality headphones. This album is distributed and promoted by the Apptronica label. Like any music genre, you might not like it and that’s fine. I hope you’re amongst those who might get inspired by this album and enjoy playing Animoog yourself.

The two main items in there to start with, detailed in the associated page:

A Sequencer for Animoog – to record and easily modify, in an easy to use user interface, played notes, the subtle changes to poly-pressure, x/y pad changes and ideally anything players usually modify while playing Animoog

Saving session states – to be able to save session’s states, which would include the selected preset, x/y pad location, keys and scale settings, and essentially any settings your can set via Animoog’s interface

Everyone is welcome to share ideas, thoughts and comments directly over the wish list page.